This study aimed to examine obstacles to foreign language teacher educators' research development. Phenomenology was adopted to probe the issue from seven experienced EFL (English as a foreign language) teacher educators' perspectives, who did not appear to be highly research-productive. Multiple sources of data were employed, including longitudinal participant observations, semi-structured individual interviews and informal conversations. It was found that the participants' research development had long been constrained by the interplay of personal and contextual factors. Personal factors include their attitudinal resistance, academic weaknesses and work-family tensions. Contextual factors involve the managerialist approach in higher education and limited ongoing academic support at the meso and macro levels. The study suggests that teacher educators' professional identity reconstruction and professional wellbeing should be a top agenda.